Strands in Time

Mornington Peninsula and Bayside Stitchers Banner

2008-09-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

Mornington Peninsula and Bayside Stitchers is a group of like minded knitters, crocheters, and spinners on http://www.ravelry.com

Over the last week or so I've been designing a banner to be used by the Mornington Peninsula and Bayside Stitchers group, a group I am a member of on Ravelry. I joined the group a couple of months ago after finding them when I searched for groups around my locality. I noticed early in the peace, that the group didn't have a banner and was using the name of the group as its banner. So just plain text. I'm essentially a pictures person, so each time I logged on and saw the plain text, the thought crossed my mind that "I'll design a banner soon", until last Sunday 31st August.

After a particularly punishing personal training session, I was feeling somewhat sore and sorry for myself. The weather too was rather pathetic, and so I spent the day on the couch downloading images, researching local images, and trialling some initial designs.

The initial design, before I found out there was a standard size for the banner.

Version 2 of the banner (below)

A little 'washed out' for my liking, My idea here was to enlarge the bathing boxes for some added detail, but because of the size of the banner, I felt you couldn't see enough of them. In version 1 it was decidedly more obvious what the bathing boxes were, and the colours themselves looked so much better. I decided to revert back to that styling in my next design.

Version 3 of the banner (below)

With the bathing boxes restored to their previous glory, I added the panoramic image of the boats and jetty, aswell as an image of one of Live2Knit's 'Wired for fibre Olivia' yarns.

Version 4 of the banner (below)

Not happy with the way the Text disappeared into the image in version 3, my goal here was simply to make it stand out some more. I was pretty happy with the banner at this stage.

Version 5 of the banner (below)

What I think will be the final version, encorporates Live2Knit's 'Wired for fibre Olivia' yarn, SpindleImp's Arabian night's lace weight yarn, and images of some of Mornington Peninsula's bathing boxes.

I really enjoy designing these things, and I hope the group loves it aswell.

The Mornington Peninsula and Bayside Stitchers are an amazingly talented group, their talent matched only by their friendliness. Now that the banner is finished it's back to the knitting.

Take Care all

freebs

Knitting problems up front

2008-08-02T18:53:00.001-07:00

As a virgin knitter I know nothing about the craft, I've learned some things over the last coouple of months but will probably always consider myself a knitting debutant.

First up, the problems facing me were language/term related. Knit stitches, purl stitches, moss stitch, yarn over, stitch this, stitch that, stitch something else or other. It is going to sound silly to someone who knits, but I was overwhelmed by all these terms and it took me some time to realise there really only were 2 simple stitches, knit and purl, and the others are just a combination of these stitches. Once I established this, the rest came relatively easily, and it was only a matter of practicing these and getting my tension consistent.

After casting on hundreds of stitches in any number of styles, and subsequently pulling them all off again, I decided my first project would be a simple scarf, just knit stitch and purl stitch over and over and over until they were like a reflex action. That scarf was I think one of the best things I could have done, because it gave me a feel for knitting.

Since those days(only 3 months ago) I have knitted several beanies for my kids, all in different methods. I knitted some flat and stitched them up, others I knitted with double pointed needles, and others again with circular needles. Currently I have no favourite method, I do however dislike sewing things up, as I don't totally understand how to do so.

Now, it would be stupid of me not to mention how and where I found the answers to all the problems I faced.

First cab off the rank is KnittingHelp.com(KH), a community of knitters and all round wonderful people that are only all too willing to help. All of the problems I faced, and I do mean every single one, had been answered prior to me needing an answer, and so a simple search gave me the answers I needed. There are heaps and heaps of videos, on a multitude of techniques that were perfect for me, no confusing drawings of complicated knots.
www.knittinghelp.com

to be continued....

My initial plans for my blog

2008-07-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my first blog entry.
OK, to set the scene, around 2 months ago(early June 2008) it was a bitterly cold Winter morning here in Melbourne Australia. My car was covered in ice, it was dark outside, and my only hand knitted beenie that I had purchased some years previous and worn pretty much religiously ever since was wet in the wash. It was simply too cold to not have a hat on and too early for shops to be open. I had to put gas in my car, and after doing so at a local petrol station and venturing inside to pay, I noticed some beenies on a stand in the corner. I picked one I liked, not noticing any pricing on the stand, made my way to the counter, and after finding out it was in excess of $30 I was to dumbfounded to do anything else but pay for it. I left that petrol station with only one thing in mind, I was going to learn how to knit.
I asked around and quickly made the decision that I would teach myself, the people that I knew that knew anything about knitting, didn't know enough to be able to competently teach me, and so my quest began........

Initially this will be a knitting blog, covering the hurdles and triumphs I encounter while teaching myself to knit. I'd like to think I will be documenting my projects, the skills I learn, the answers to problems I solve aswell as promoting the resources most helpful to me in my quest.